Process for utilizing spent fullers&#39; earth.



um'rnn STATES PATENT orrion NATHAN SULZBERGER, on NEW YORK, N. Y.

PROCESS FOR UTILIZING SPENT FULLERS EARTH.

No Drawing.

Specification of Letters Patent' vPatentqulAug. 23, 1910.

Application filed February 17, 1910. Serial No. 544,502.

To all whom it may concern:

. fats and oils, retains after having been used for such purposes larger or smaller amounts (often around ten per cent.) of the treated material. Such material is today practically lost and wasted since the processes for recovering these absorbed and retained amounts (or at least a percentage of the same) are not sufliciently economical. Therefore, today little endeavor is made to free such spent fullers earth from these quantities of retained substances or of utilizing spent fullers earth and its fatty contents in some other way and the fact of their going to waste or of their not being used up to their full value is all the more deplorable, oleaginous contents, which said fullers. earth a soapy compound is obtained possessing abra'sive and detergent qualities due to'the fullers earth, which the same contains. I

As an example of my process I cite the following: Twenty pounds of fullers earth, which had been used in de-odorizing and decoloring lard, were treated with an aqueous solution of a slight excess of caustic potash;

after saponification the mass was dried down to a semi-solid consistency; this material may be bleached or perfumed if desired.

My process can be employ'edin all cases where a finely'divided matter,'in particular of mineral origin, is used in the treatment of oily and fatty material. The process may also be modified as to suit the particular appliance of the same in various ways, for

instanceif caustic soda has been used in saponifyin'g the fattymaterial retained in the fullers earth, the water may be evaporated more or lesscompletely and the prodnot obtained in the form of a dry mass,

which may be powdered and which powdered product possesses all the abrasive and detergent qualities of the fullers earth, ad-

vantageously increased by the addition of soap, this soap being the saponified fatty matter, which the spent fullers earth. originally contained.

In regaining the in the spent fullers earth, by saponifying the same with an alkali, allowance must be made in adding the amount of alkali for the fact that fullers earth itself will connect up with a certain amount of alkali, depending on the specific'sample of fullers earth which has been used in the treatment of the fatty material.

I claim:

1. Process for rendering commercially available fullers earth, which hasbeen used in deodorizing and decoloring substances of a fatty nature, consisting in saponifyi-ng the has artificially absorbed and retained by virtue of its having been used for deodorizing and decoloring substances of a fatty and oily nature.

2. Process for rendering commercially available substances of a mineral nature,

which have been used in deodorizing and decoloring substances of a fatty nature, con

sisting in saponifying the oleaginous matter,

of a fatty and oily fatty material retained contents of spent fullers earth, with which into a soapy compound, consisting in sub jecting such spent fullers earth to a process of saponifying the artificially absorbed fatty -matter, in order to convert the fatty eonstituents into a soap.

Witnesses:

R. CHRISTIANSEN, GEORGE H. OCEAR.

NATHAN SULZBERGER. 

